The unexpected happened ON THIS DAY – the final album to be released during his lifetime is Prince’s 39th album HITnRUN Phase Two on Tidal.
I will never forget a few hours after it was released he asked me to review the album without any liner notes or a physical copy. I will miss moments like that. I could write a book based on my DM's.
This is one of my favourite albums due to my own personal experience interacting with him. I remember it like it was yesterday, it was released on a Saturday evening (London GMT) and it was so random but not out of character for someone like Prince.
I was tweeting like crazy and then he slips me a personal message and I froze. I was scared. Then I realized what he asked me to do, but I didn't know what to do with myself. So it took me a few minutes to reply because I have his attention. Regardless of my reply it was crucial because my idol wanted me to "critic" his work. I already was planning to do a review but on my own terms but the pressure was on because he asked me too.
Click to listen: Look At Me, Look At U - Prince (song)
"This is like the blind date from heaven" Andy Gill, Independent Newspaper (2015)
I remember a few weeks before December 12th 2015, I received a message from someone who claimed to be close to the P camp and he gave me a heads up that 'Groovy Potential' would be on the album and I didn't believe him because I already had a cooy of the song and it was released back in 2013 or somewhere near that time. When I checked out the tracklist and saw the song in the list I was frozen once again. I was thinking to myself is Prince tryna set me up for initiation. Why is this happening to me? What did I do? I can't bring nothing to the table. I only read stories like this about people who was privileged enough to work with him but now I'm been given that opportunity.
"You can call me C.C. Crowd Control" - Prince, Screwdriver (song)
Has it really been 4 years since Phase Two was released? It still feels like yesterday.
I miss him. I miss moments like this. I miss wanting to bug him with questions and enthuse with him about his past work or question him on why he created musical arrangements in certain methods that was unique to him. He never really answered my questions except he always thanked me for asking and he would change the subject. This was why my review videos on YouTube was so long because I used them to talk to Prince, which is the reason why I don't do them anymore. When I finally uploaded my Hit n Run Phase Two review on YouTube. Prince talked to me throughout the length of the video, it wasn't strange but its not normal for a ordinary girl talking to a legend. It was like a teacher marking my work and then reporting back to me on what I needed to improve on. His only critic was that I need a new camera so he could see me better and asked if I shot this in day or night. I answered day but I remember in my intro it was my first impression on the night the album was released so I should've answered both.
I find it hilarious when people comment under my video "Your so lucky that he posted your video" or the common question "Did you know that Prince posted your video on Twitter?". The answer is yes, we planned it together and he left me to do all the hard work to listen to the tracks without his guidence until the video was uploaded.
If he was here I would of stepped back a long time ago but because he's not here I stick around a little longer in his memory, because he saw something that I couldn't see 💜
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